Homosexuals: What Pope Francis didn’t say

The world is going gay! Each new day another country endorses same sex marriage. Each new day, world leaders, Christian leaders and even our iconic Archbishop Desmond Tutu have continued to make room for and extend the conjugal rights of same sex people. While the moral majority is nigh being at the receiving end now, it faces an imminent danger of a harmful role reversal. Still nonplussed and trying hard to come to terms with what is obviously a gay revolution, the Catholic Pontiff, Pope Francis weighs in in favour of gays and dampens the spirit of heterosexuals who are now derisively called ‘homophobes’.

In a chat with journalists after a tour of Brazil recently, the pope declared that even though homosexual acts are sin, people with homosexual orientation must not be ‘judged’ or ‘marginalised’. “If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge him,” the pope said. “The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says they should not be marginalized because of this (orientation) but that they must be integrated into society,” he said. In other words, homosexual act may be sinful, homosexual orientation is not by itself wrong or sinful? But is it possible to have homosexual orientation without committing homosexual acts?

Surely, hardly any man can claim to be more Catholic or even Christian than the pope but the point that must be made here is that this remark from the pope represents the single most important endorsement to be enjoyed by people with gay tendencies across the world. Has the dam finally broken, has the last vestiges of resistance to what is clearly an aberrant human behavior been lost? Man and man (or woman and woman) living together and cohabiting is abhorrent to humanity and sinful in the sight of our Christian God. It is not about marginalizing or judging, it is about repudiating our creator and the grave danger this act portends for humanity now, in the future and in the hereafter.

Homosexuals will always remain people who have deviated from the natural course of God, they need help – psychological and spiritual help. For this reason, I reproduce below, an article by William Consiglio, titled: “Understanding Homosexuality” published on page1081 of the Parents Resource Bible. I have taken the liberty to modify the title thus:

Help for homosexuals

God’s word is truthful, and we can rely on it. It reveals God’s standards about life and human sexuality. In Romans 1: 24-27 we can see four moral and spiritual truths about homosexuality.

Homosexuality is a behavior. The Bible never calls homosexuality an identity or an alternative sexuality created by God. The Word says: “Women… indulged in sex… with each other. And the men… doing the shameful things with other men…” (v.26-27).

Homosexuality is a sinful behavior. Sinful means that such a behavior is displeasing to God. The Word says: “God let them go ahead in every sort of sex sin” (v. 24).

Homosexuality is a substitute for God’s natural plan. God’s Word says that “ even their women turned against God’s natural plan” (v. 26). God created all people to be heterosexuals. Homosexuality is a spiritual and emotional disorientation, deviation and disorder in his plan.

As with all sin, the root of homosexual behavior is caused and maintained by those who refuse to honour God. “They knew about him all right but they wouldn’t admit it or worship him or even thank him for all his daily care” (v.21). All sin is a turning away from God. All healing comes from a return to God. Spiritually and morally, homosexuality is a sinful behavior that distorts God’s natural plan for human sexuality.

Homosexuality is not the unforgivable sin. It is important to understand that homosexual behavior has emotional and psychological roots. While homosexuality is sin, it is not the unforgivable sin. God knows that all of us are sinners, prone to emotional wounding and disordered behavior

John 8: 1-11 contains the story of an adulterous woman who was brought before Jesus. If this had been a homosexual person, what would Jesus have done? Jesus loved the woman just as he loves all sinners, including homosexuals. He forgave her and commanded her to stop sinning. He said, “Neither do I (condemn you). Go and sin no more” (John 8:11) God loves homosexual people and call them to repent and be healed. He seeks their conversion and not their shame and ruin.

There is healing for those overcoming homosexuality. How can those struggling with homosexuality “sin no more”? How can they change their feelings, behavior and life-style? There are six elements to an effective healing program for Christians who are overcoming homosexuality:

•The overcommer needs personal relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ. He or she needs to become a child of God. Only Jesus can give the overcomer this relationship to God because as he says, “no one can get to the father except by means of me” (John 14:6). “To all who received him (Jesus), he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

• The overcomer needs a personal life that includes regular study and meditation on God’s word and a vital life of prayer.

• The overcomer needs to be actively involved in a good Bible teaching/preaching church that offers fellowship and nurture in Christian holiness.

• The overcomer needs a good Christian friend or married couple with whom to share burdens and be held accountable…

• The overcomer needs to be committed to professional Christian counseling to learn about the roots of homosexuality, gain personal insight, and work through emotional healing.

• Finally, the overcomer needs to be involved in a group support ministry with other overcomers. It provides HOPE – a place of Honesty, Openness, Prayer, and Encouragemnet. God loves the overcomer, so there is plenty of hope for those trying to overcome.

LAST MUG: Fani-Kayode goes off the hook

It is shocking that so much hatred and bigotry had remained percolated in some people all these year and that those demons were all this while looking for an opportunity to break free. One of such is as manifested in Femi Fani-Kayode’s interminable diatribe: “The bitter truth about the Igbo in Nigeria.” Surely it could not be this small matter of ‘deportation’ of 14 Igbo people to Onitsha that brought about this unhinging. Femi has created an ethnic mud-fight where none really existed and he is reveling in it all by his self.

But one is pushed to interject his fun when he went so low as to release a shortlist (or is that his long list?) of all the (Igbo) women he enjoyed ‘intimate’ relationship with in his wild-oat sowing years. Gush, did Femi have to name names of women who are now married and running families? We thought this was the antics of excitable high school boys newly exploiting their libidinal prowess. To think that this is a one-minister in this country! I think opinion molders will do well to show a little more restraint when they put pen to paper.